Defining Workplace Culture
Identify and Distinguish the Atmosphere at Work
Discovering the true culture of your office is the first step toward employee satisfaction.
During a job interview, it’s important to inquire about the office atmosphere. Finding an environment that suits your work style can mean the difference between a job you love, and a job you can’t wait to leave.
However, experience has shown that most interviewers respond the exact same way. “We work hard, but we have fun, too.” This is the blanket answer, meant to indicate a bottom line: we expect you to get your work done, but don’t be scared, we’re also nice people.
That would be great if it were true. However, most of the time it’s surprisingly inaccurate. Sometimes “we have fun” means free happy hour every Friday starting at 3 p.m. Sometimes it means “You may listen to your iPod from 8 to 8:30 every morning.”
The definition of “we work hard” also varies drastically. In most environments you can assume that work comes before play. Other times the managers will set aside important tasks to throw a Cinco De Mayo party. (Think Michael Scott from The Office, as an extreme example.)
Being arbitrary about your workplace culture leads to universal problems. For one thing, you may attract the wrong kind of employee. A worker looking for a fun, flexible environment will balk and perform poorly if they accept the position only to find themselves in a structured atmosphere. An employee who is more task-oriented will not fit in with a culture that values fluidity, where a whimsical idea will lead to dropping current projects to pursue something new.
It’s important for both employees and managers that each workplace make a specific distinction on their true office environment. Doing so means attracting and retaining the right employees, as well as letting employees know from the start what is expected of them.
But how do you define your workplace culture?
The best way to begin is through a series of self-assessment questions. A series of related articles are as follows:
Achievement Culture: How goal-oriented is your workplace?
Flexibility: How flexible is your work environment?
Fun: Is your office as fun as you claim it is?
Employee Value: Do you value their input?
Individualism vs. Collectivism: Do you value teamwork, or promote individuality?
Implementation: Does your company practice what it preaches?
Some answers to these questions seem self-evident, but a moment spent answering the in-depth questions in each related article may surprise you. (Follow the links above for the subsequent articles.)
You may find that there are a few things about your workplace culture that you’d like to change. Many articles exist on how to build a “positive” work environment, but positive is a relative term. What works for one company may not work for another, so before change can happen, an honest look at how your culture works is imperative.
Click here to visit the first self-assessment article in the series.
